


Vespers

by silkinsilence



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-19
Updated: 2015-10-19
Packaged: 2018-04-27 01:39:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5028706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silkinsilence/pseuds/silkinsilence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's just a phone call.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Vespers

Mai keeps her phone on silent nearly all the time. She doesn’t want to be disturbed, true, but also she’s forgetful. Her ringtone has gone off in class before, and it’s simpler to keep it silent all the time than to remember to switch it on and off.

So it’s complete luck that she sees the call at all, luck that her phone was face-up, that the screen illuminating catches her attention. She glances at it and frowns. It’s Azula, and Azula never calls; she prefers texting.

“Hello?” It’s eleven at night. The irregularities are strange.

“Mai?” Her voice sounds different over the phone.

“Uh, yeah,” Mai says, unsure of how to respond. Who else would it be? 

“Did I wake you?” The question is out of character. Something like worry has begun to awaken in the pit of Mai’s stomach. 

“No, I’m up. What’s wrong?” Mai’s parents are in bed, Tom-Tom tucked away. It’s just her and Azula at the other end of the line. Mai pictures Azula sitting at home, that huge and desolate house.

“Nothing’s wrong. Don’t jump to conclusions, Mai,” Azula admonishes, and Mai can almost hear the smile. “You don’t want to make me wish I’d called Ty Lee, do you?”

“Well, you never call me.” Mai points out the obvious, her tone bordering on testy. “So maybe you  _should_  have called Ty Lee.”

“I never call her, either.” There’s a sound of some scrabbling on the other end, and Azula mutters something Mai doesn’t catch.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Are you going to tell me why you called?” Mai shouldn’t really be surprised by the circularity of the conversation, but it’s less annoying in person, when Azula is there to look at, to…touch.

“You should make up with Zuko,” Azula says, and Mai really doesn’t know how to react to that, not when it sounds absolutely nothing like anything Azula has ever said to her before.

“Are you breaking up with me over the phone?” Admittedly, she wouldn’t put it past Azula, but this whole scenario is so bizarre that Mai doesn’t even know what to start to think.

“What? No. Don’t be stupid. You’re mine, aren’t you?”

“I’m…not a fan of that phrasing.”

Azula exhales sharply. Mai supposes it might be a laugh. 

“Fine. What phrasing would you prefer?”

“You can’t make me say it over the phone,” Mai says. She’s loath even to admit that Azula can make her say it in person.

“Please?” Azula’s tone lacks its usual sarcastic edge. Mai chalks it up to the phone and imagines her mocking little pout.

“Fine. I love you.” The words sound irritated.

Azula gives her a short, elated little laugh in response. The conversation continues to weird Mai out. 

“Well, this has been fun,” Azula says. Mai hears sirens and looks around before realizing that they’re coming from Azula’s end. The sound doesn’t strike her as unusual.

“Um, yeah. Really fun.” 

“Just one more thing.”

“Okay?” 

“I love you too.” The line goes dead.

Mai stares at the phone for a few long seconds, her complete bemusement abruptly transformed into alarm. She calls Azula back, but the phone rings and rings and leads her to a mechanical voice inviting her to leave a message. Mai doesn’t know what to do, is sure now that something is very, very wrong, and before she really understands what she’s doing or why she’s doing it, she’s crept out of her room and pulled on her coat and headed for the street.

It’s a little surreal to make this walk in the depths of night, and in any other occasion the trees and the streetlights and the big quiet houses would be beautiful, because Kyoto is never this quiet during the day. But Mai has no time to pay attention to any of this. She walks as if possessed, nearly running, trying Azula’s number again and again to no response.

The house isn’t that far from her own, but it seems to take her forever to reach it. She strides up the driveway, noticing the lack of cars, and slams her hand on the bell. Silence. She hits it again, but nothing changes it. She pounds it over and over again, yanks at the handle, does everything she can except scream, but the door remains solid and immovable and nobody comes to answer it. The house is dark and quiet.

Mai’s heart is pounding in her throat. Her hands are curled into fists. She does not know what to do, knows that something is wrong, has never before been so afraid. How absurd that something so small should do this.

Azula has  _never before_  told her she loves her.

In the morning, Mai sees the crash on the news. A reporter tells Mai and everybody else watching that Ozai and the driver were dead on arrival, that Azula died minutes after paramedics arrived. The reporter moves on to discuss other things, but Mai is still trapped in the instant she heard Azula’s name on the television. 

She is certain she will never leave it.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments greatly appreciated.


End file.
